Various machines have been developed for processing disk-like objects such as hamburger patties. These devices generally receive a stream of patties from a conveyor belt and form them into stacks. After the stacks are formed, however, they often must be removed manually from the stack-forming machine and placed in a box or other container or set aside for further processing. The need for human labor in this process slows the process, increases its cost, and can result in inconsistent stack sizes and boxes packed with too few or too many patties.
A stack-forming machine is disclosed in a co-pending application entitled “Method and Apparatus for Stacking Discrete Planar Objects” filed concurrently herewith and assigned to the assignee of this application. The disclosure thereof is incorporated herein by reference. This stack-forming machine forms stacks having a certain number of patties and moves the formed stacks into a buffer which is disclosed in a co-pending application entitled “Method and Apparatus for Buffering A Flow of Objects” filed concurrently herewith. The disclosure of that application too is hereby incorporated by reference. This buffer receives a first number of stacks of patties from a stack-forming machine and presents a second, generally different number of stacks at a second location so that this second number of stacks can be placed into cases. For example, if a stacking machine forms four stacks of patties at a time and a case of patties is only three patties wide, the buffer receives four stacks of patties and presents them in groups of three for further processing. While the stacks could be manually removed from the buffer and placed in cases, this use of human labor decreases the efficiency of the packing process. It would therefore be desirable to provide a stack transfer device for removing stacks of disk-like objects such as frozen hamburger patties from a buffer or stack-forming machine and transferring the stacks to a second location from which they can be packed into a case.